Sweet Sensitivity

A sweet tooth may reveal a susceptibility to the mood-altering effects of sugar. Researchers gave varying concentrations of sugar water to 163 volunteers. The greater people's taste for high-octane sugar, the greater their reports of mood change after consuming it (they tended to feel happier or less irritable or nervous). Such people were more likely "to have an impaired control over eating sweets," according to psychiatrist Alexey B. Kampov at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He and his colleagues have found that in people who are prone to sugar-induced mood lifts, sugar-free replacements can cause this reaction—and possibly prompt overeating—as well.